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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28478367">A bird in the hand</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirrithian/pseuds/Kirric'>Kirric (Kirrithian)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Steven Universe (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Budgie - Freeform, Gen, Jasper becomes a bird mom, Jasper figuring out something better to do with her life, Little Homeworld, post-suf, soft Jasper</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 04:14:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,414</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28478367</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirrithian/pseuds/Kirric</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After being increasingly pestered by gems, Jasper tracks down the AWOL Peridot and Bismuth to the greenhouse, where they find themselves facing an unusual feathery visitor.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A bird in the hand</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/pmw/gifts">pmw</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Reef Secret Santa for pmw! Hope you enjoy it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Oh hey, over there! Jasper!" </p><p>Jasper ignored them, concentrating as she lifted the specially sculpted boulder to shoulder height and pressed it into the air, counting as she went. It was still important to keep battle-ready and active even though there was little need for it in Era Three. But it kept her busy, kept her in familiar shape and habits, and it kept the others away from her when she was doing it.</p><p>"Jasper!"</p><p>Mostly.</p><p>She counted louder.</p><p>"Have you seen Bismuth around recently?"</p><p>"No," Jasper grunted.</p><p>"Oh, well." </p><p>Jasper shifted, adjusting her grip forward, the strain starting to pull, the burning ache briefly eased as she changed into a deep crouch. "Maybe see you out the beach sometime!" Jasper stayed quiet, perspiring a little as she held the rock in place, arms locked out.</p><p> </p><p>"Hey Jasper!" </p><p>Different gem, and almost twice as many as would pass by here on a busy day. Maybe she should have done this inside instead.</p><p>"Have you seen Peridot?"</p><p>"No."</p><p>"Oh. I thought you might have."</p><p>With a sigh she stood, boulder still in hand and carefully balanced it on the rest of her stack. The gem was still there. "Well, I haven't," and with that she pushed inside, letting the door swing back into place behind her with a satisfying bang.</p><p>After Steven's last visit and subsequent departure, Jasper had been trying to figure out what to do with herself. She didn't want to join Homeschool, not really, but she'd been drawn into making a home here, hovering on the fringes. <em> Find something better to do with your life. </em>  </p><p>It had started small, the Bismuth enlisting her to help them clear an area for one of their newest buildings. Though it rankled to be taking orders from them, and the work was menial she'd taken it anyway, ploughing the Earth with ferocity. She'd done a good job, but all that was left was the same empty space.</p><p>"You could help building it," Bismuth had suggested, "it'd suit you." </p><p>Jasper looked at her with incredulity. She, a soldier, knew how to make a rudimentary shelter and that was it. Building was a Bismuth's job, and Jasper wanted to leave it that way.</p><p>She'd chuckled then, the Bismuth, laughing at her no doubt. "I know that look," she said. "Homeworld words and expectations. Believe me, I remember. But I fought in the war too, against you more than a fair few times. You were a good soldier. I was a good builder, but I changed to make weapons instead, and I learnt how to fight and fight well. But now that's all done. Now we need spades and shelves more than swords and armour, and people to wield those instead. Like you can."</p><p>"I'm not some-"</p><p>"I can still build like I used to, just like you can fight. That knowledge doesn't go away. I just prefer doing other things. I make time to do other things."</p><p>Jasper frowned. "You built this, you built Little Homeworld."</p><p>"Yes, but it's more than just the buildings. It's about building a new life, a new era, and you can too." She paused, waiting for a reaction that never came. "I know it can be daunting, to have what was so much a part of you just gone..."</p><p>Jasper clenched a fist. How can she know how this feels?</p><p>"It's always seems easy to destroy, especially so deep in the heat of battle, to want to tear things apart, get rid of them just like that," Bismuth snapped her fingers, "one minute of anger and it's gone. But so often it doesn't answer the problem, and only leaves behind more pain, and hurt, and an emptiness that can't easily be replaced." Bismuth let out a dry 'ha!', "I learnt that the hard way."</p><p>Jasper couldn't help but stare at the bare ground. Her handiwork.</p><p>"But when you make something…" Bismuth waved her hands, "starting from nothing and working your way up, you bring something into the world, and into yourself again, something beautiful, something useful, something new. But it is harder. It takes strength, willingness and dedication. Preparation too." Bismuth studied the empty plot before them. "A bit of an eye for perfection."</p><p>"When you're building a building like these you have to get it right at every stage, from the foundation all the way to the top, else the whole thing can fall down around your ears in an instant. But in return you get shelter, warmth, ...beauty. You can make it to give to others, or keep it for yourself. Your own place, your own mark on a world, your own territory. Privacy, if that is really what you want." Bismuth had turned to her then. "What do you say? Time to build something new?"</p><p>Jasper huffed. "If you want someone to help you build, get someone who knows what they're doing. I've done what I came here for." She jabbed a thumb at the barren ground, then kicked a clod out for good measure. "I'm not coming to live here or go to this 'School', or cosy up to you or any of your fawning gems."</p><p>"Good. I'm not asking you to stay. I'm not asking you to get all pally with us, and I'm not asking you to build this all by yourself. I'm asking you to help me. With a gem like you onboard we could get it done in half the time, even with learning on the job." Jasper shifted, weighing up her options. It was better than the steady stream coming to try and convince her to join the 'sports', or a lesson, or just trying to talk to her… "Look, you've already taken the first step. Why don't you see where else it goes?"</p><p>Jasper picked up one of the tools Bismuth had dropped in the box of hers. "How long is this supposed to take?"</p><p>"A few days, maybe a week. You're welcome to bail at any time, but it's good work for keeping busy."</p><p><em>...something better to do…</em>   </p><p> </p><p>It had been strange, at first, building instead of demolishing, but she <strong>had</strong> been well suited to it, spending hours on end shifting materials, building walls, assembling this building into existence. When Bismuth had offered it to her as a place to stay she'd turned it down. She hadn't been building it for herself after all. Just as something to keep herself busy. The small flickers of doubt that she'd actually done such a bad job the Bismuth wanted to stick her there to live with it as punishment couldn't shift from her mind either. Yet Bismuth had so easily offered her the next one, helping Jasper accumulate the supplies to make it to her own specification, of solid stone and brick and clay, baked and moulded by hand. A new cave (house, Bismuth had said the humans usually called it,) all for her. </p><p>It brought her quiet too. The closer she was, the more they left her alone. </p><p><em>Knock-knock-knock</em> "Hey, Jasper! You in there?"</p><p>Most of the time. </p><p>She had a taste for it. Jasper had thrown herself into construction work all over the place, at Homeschool and beyond. The hours were long, and the work challenging enough to keep her occupied, with the added bonus of only needing to discuss practical matters with the other gems on-site. The rest of the time she could happily get on with it, whiling the time away. She'd even started taking command of other gems on occasion, organizing and instructing small groups as they worked in tandem with Bismuth. She'd frequently commented at how much more quickly the projects progressed, and Jasper found herself left in completion staring at the very sort of incursions she'd once fought so hard to prevent. </p><p>But this is what she had made.</p><p>Was it better?</p><p>The question plagued her.</p><p>…</p><p>Was it better?</p><p>"Hey Jasper, have you seen Bis-"</p><p>"NO!" The gem frozen at the door looked like she was about to jump out her form as Jasper leapt up fuming and punched the wall, neatly slotting out one of the bricks specially placed for that purpose with a loud bang. </p><p>"Eep!" She scattered, leaving Jasper to knead her head.</p><p>That was the problem with living at Little Homeworld; Other people.</p><p>Jasper glanced outside, closing her eyes as she saw what still awaited her. A whole class, almost a dozen different gems chatting amongst themselves, occasionally looking her way. She even recognised one or two of them, and they didn't seem like leaving.</p><p>With a sigh, she opened the door.</p><p> </p><p>She'd tracked them down to the greenhouse, passing through the thick foliage near the entrance with a grimace. She still wasn't keen on these organics, even preferring to work without woods whenever she could. It was an invasion on the senses coming in here; as soon as she stepped inside the warmth clung to her, the summer sun turning the air into a thick humidity that snuck into your skin. The colour came next, bright splashes of reds and yellows and blues all set in an increasingly dense and verdant green jungle of plants, parts of the greenhouse now obscured by walls of climbers, stretching trees, and banks of potted flowers, the perfect place for an ambush. Jasper's skin prickled as she picked out voices up ahead, hushed and furtive. She strained to make them out.</p><p>"Over there, it went in the orange tree."</p><p>Bismuth.</p><p>"I can't see it." </p><p>Peridot. Good, they were both here.</p><p>"It's hiding."</p><p>She couldn't quite place that one, tilting her head to catch the delicate tones.</p><p>"Ahhh, never mind, I can get a jump on it from above!" Peridot again, as cocksure as ever.</p><p>"Be careful."</p><p>The flash of green rising into the air sent Jasper back a step, old instincts kicking in and urged to hide away back beneath the greenery. Something crumpled underfoot with a crackle, and she froze, hoping no-one noticed.</p><p>"Wait, do you hear that? There!"</p><p>Too late.</p><p>"Jasper!" Peridot cried, descending to hover before her, "what are you doing here?" Peridot's eyes slipped onto something over Jasper's shoulder and widened. "Close the door!" she squeaked. "CLOSE THE DOOR!"  A small explosion of green and yellow shot straight up into the air between them, the bundle of feathers battering Peridot about the face before darting away shrieking, straight towards Jasper. Peridot repeated her cry, getting increasingly shrill, echoed by this bird.</p><p>Jasper ducked the flying thing and pulled the door shut with a bang that made the glass rattle, nerves edge, helmet in place. Silence fell.</p><p>"What were you thinking?!" Peridot stormed up, barely making her midriff, "didn't you see the sign?!"</p><p>Jasper vaguely recalled a piece of paper on the door scrawled in flowery font with a 'no entry (please!)'. She shrugged. "There's gems looking for you." She shoved past Peridot to address the others too, "you too Bismuth. They keep bothering me."</p><p>"Ahh, we didn't cancel the classes… Sorry Jasper," Bismuth gave her an apologetic smile, "something came up. It's ah, taken a bit longer than we expected to sort."</p><p><em>'Something came up'</em> Jasper parroted internally. That better be a good something. "Well, are you done?" Bismuth didn't answer immediately, checking the pink pearl trying peering out from behind her instead. Jasper had seen that one around before, but couldn't quite remember the name they insisted she be called. Wasn't bothered to. Peridot was searching as well, scanning around somewhere behind Jasper's head. Jasper glanced over her shoulder. There was nothing there. "Well?" she searched them for answers. "What happened?"</p><p>"We got side-tracked," Bismuth tried to placate her, "that's all."</p><p>"Well get un-sidetracked, and quick. I don't <strong>do</strong> other people's problems."</p><p>She turned to head out again. "Hey!" Peridot cried.</p><p>Jasper stopped, shoulders rising, inhaled and glared at them, layering every second of this inconvenience up behind it in mute disapproval.</p><p>"It's not our fault," Peridot explained, with a pout. "There was a bird in here that's escaped from some nearby humans, and we have to catch it and get it to safety first! We had the whole thing locked down and under control until you came along!"</p><p>"Me?"</p><p>"Yeah! You and your clumsy clodness let it escape!"</p><p>"Escape?"</p><p>"Yes! We were trying to catch it! We nearly had it when you walked in!"</p><p>"Hmpf. Don't classes start at dawn?" A nod. "So you've been stuck in here all morning trying to catch this puny bird?"</p><p>"Yeah."</p><p>"And now it's gone."</p><p>"Thanks to you!"</p><p>Jasper considered it a moment. "Good." She turned to leave again, only to be interrupted by a squawk as the bird reappeared, flapping around and sending everyone into a frenzy.</p><p>"Catch it! Catch it! Catch IT!" </p><p>Limbs were going everywhere as Peridot and Bismuth flung themselves after it, Jasper forced to defend herself when they threatened to land on her, batting Peridot away and toppling Bismuth into a nearby table with an undignified crash. She didn't seem to mind though, pausing amongst the scattered compost as she looked around. </p><p>"Where'd it go?" A pause. "Did we get it?"</p><p>"Wait," a quiet gentle voice. The Pearl spoke up again, "don't move." </p><p>"You see it Volley?" Peridot whispered, drifting down to join her as she raised a hand, unfurling a long finger to point directly at Jasper. All eyes landed on her.</p><p>"I don't-"</p><p>"Shhh!" they flapped at her to settle, quieten down. And she listened. She could hear something moving then she felt it, a small tremor through one of her horns, and a tug at her scalp.</p><p>Her hands flew up, just missing the feathered fiend that launched itself into the air again, and she swung again, attempting to bat it out of the air, caught short as Bismuth half tackled her, an explosion of noise and protest between them. Peridot joined the fray, and departed, her tray clipped against an errant horn sending her sprawling into the dirt as well.</p><p>Volley was the last left standing, but an enthusiastic swipe at the bird and a surprised yelp caught only air, leaving the bird clear to settle up on the rafters above them, preening itself.</p><p>Peridot glared at it. "It's mocking us."</p><p>Jasper snorted. This was the first time she'd gotten a good look at the creature, and puny was an overestimation. This thing was miniscule, and organic. With all the fuss the others were making over it she'd expected some sort of diminutive corruption at least, but no. Just a small organic bird, albeit a brightly coloured one.</p><p>"It's just another puny Earth bird. Why don't you just let it out with the rest of them?"</p><p>"We can't." Bismuth came to stand beside her. "It's a budgie." Bismuth must have noticed Jasper's confusion, "the humans keep them as pets, look after them, keep them in special cages. They're from Earth but they don't live in the wild in this part of the planet, and if it escaped it would likely die of cold, or predation, or one of the many other dangers in the world out there for a creature that small. We need to catch it and find its owner so that we, and it, can all go home."</p><p>Jasper had her eyes on the bird. It was there sat on a metal bar, resplendent in its coat of yellow and greens, stark black bars standing out on the edges of its feathers. A pretty little thing. It watched them, turning its head this way and that as it paced up and down. It dipped down, seemingly chewing at the bar for a second, then toppled over, hanging beak and claws upside down underneath, climbing along like that for a bit, then clambering up again, letting out little chirps as it went.</p><p>"So what do we do?" Volley's question caught Jasper by surprise. "We can't just leave it."</p><p>"We can't risk it getting out either." Bismuth groaned. "This is useless."</p><p>"I thought you were the experts in this sort of thing;" Jasper observed, "you've spent long enough catching corruptions."</p><p>"Technically that was mostly Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl," Bismuth said, </p><p>"And Steven!" Peridot added.</p><p>"-not us."</p><p>"So get them to help."</p><p>Peridot coughed. "Yes, yes, that is a possibility, but we're all here already, and we don't want to bother them…" Peridot's face was flushed a deeper green, hands wringing over each other. "Not if we don't have to." She tried to gee herself up. "We just have to keep trying! With an extra person we have a better chance of flanking it and cutting off its escape!"</p><p>Jasper chuckled. "That's not going to work."</p><p>"Shouldn't we at least try-"</p><p>"It's not going to work. Bird that size could easily slip out between us," Jasper explained, "even if we had a dozen extra gems on hand."</p><p>Bismuth studied her. "So what do you suggest?"</p><p>"We need seeds." Jasper picked up a nearby packet at random and tore it open, drawing scandalised gasps from Peridot and the Pearl as the miniscule contents spilled all over the floor.</p><p>"What are you doing!? Those are for-"</p><p>"I know what I'm talking about. Look." Jasper held the others back, and they watched as the budgie hopped toward the spill, eyeing it keenly, but not descending from its perch just yet. "It wants food. We can use this to draw the bird into a trap." Volleyball brought out a piece of slate and some chalk, Jasper quickly drawing up a plan.</p><p>"We'll need a container, ventilated but not too big it can escape," Bismuth mused. "Peridot, I'm going to need your help. Jasper, Volleyball can help you find the best feed."</p><p>"Yes," Peridot's nasal tones cut in, "it is worth experimenting with different combinations to discover which best attracts the attention of the budgie."</p><p>"That won't count for anything if we can't stay quiet enough to not spook it as it approaches the trap." Jasper glared at Peridot. "That means actually being quiet, if you can manage that."</p><p>"Hey! Of course I can be quiet!" Peridot cried, squaring up, "I'm just trying to offer some of my invaluable ideas up to this rockhead but she isn't listening. She," Peridot waved a finger up at Jasper, "she still thinks I'm some yappy lackey who can't hold their own! Well, I'll have you know I've been studying Earth creatures for longer than you. I know all about this planet and their ways. I'm an inexhaustible encyclopedia of Earth knowledge wrapped in a genius tactical mind if you didn't notice. Just look at my bounty!" she waved at the greenhouse. "There is nothing I can't do!"</p><p>"You haven't caught the budgie." </p><p>Peridot gaped a few times, then clammed up. After a second or so she started shaking as she puffed up, trying to hold it back with a barely repressed growl until she looked like she might combust.</p><p>"Easy, she's just trying to help." Bismuth tried to escort Peridot away, but she doubled back.</p><p>"Wait, why are you helping us?" Peridot waved at the greenhouse and the plants around them. "No offence, but you've never cared about Earth things before, or about Earth for that matter. What's changed now?"</p><p>"It hasn't. I want to get out and back to my nice quiet, uninterrupted day I was going to have. Soon as I get this thing out of here, the gems can go back to bothering you instead of me." She chucked the piece of chalk back down. "Now chop-chop!"</p><p> </p><p>It was quiet. The others had settled into their positions, quiet as they waited for the next stage in the plan. Jasper started as the Pearl (Volleyball, she remembered,) settled down beside her.</p><p>"Hi</p><p>Jasper stayed silent. Silence was the key to this working after all. </p><p>But Volleyball was careful, speaking softly, barely even a whisper. "I was wondering how you know about the birds. Peridot was right. All I've heard about you is that you hate Earth, that you drive organics away…" she looked out, "even the plants."</p><p>Jasper's mind raced. Tracking, tactical methods,</p><p>"...yet you know this," she mused. "It's a funny world. You know you- Oh!" She looked up, Jasper freezing still as she followed it up and around.</p><p>"Oh!" That eye widened in surprise once again, settling into a delighted smile, a little glance back to Jasper, still held as still as she could. </p><p>"Is it…?"</p><p>"It's back," Volley said. In the silence Jasper could feel it moving around, its location traced hop by hop by the Pearl. "What now?" she asked, softly softly.</p><p>"I don't know," Jasper confessed, "I never got this close before." She didn't think they'd get this far so soon either.</p><p>"I think I saw something where they sometimes land on humans fingers or hands," Volley offered, her eye still aimed higher, and Jasper felt a familiar tug on her scalp again. "Oh! I think it's nesting!" Volley covered a charmed laugh, tinkling notes escaping through her hand. The bird replied in kind, drawing another delighted chirp from Volley.</p><p>Jasper almost went cross-eyed to see it herself, a futile attempt. She reached up instead, as slowly and gently as she could, half glancing to Volleyball to gauge where she was. A hand on the arm stilled her, and she waited. </p><p>Maybe she should have taken some of the seeds with her.</p><p>Volley's eye widened, Jasper lowered her hand, breath held until it hovered at eye level, budgie sat atop. </p><p>She stared, taking in the bright feathers, the dark eye, the sharp claws and beak reflected in her gem. It tilted its head, taking a good look at Jasper too. This was bizarre. She'd never spent so long so close to Earth organics before (humans do Not count, not the ones that know about gems anyway). It turned its head again, skipping along, and sank its beak into her finger.</p><p>"Oh!" Volley's surprise was stark in its contrast to Jasper's as she stared at the bird now hanging off her hand, stood in utter silence at the scene. Then slowly, almost imperceptibly she began to shake. It started around her stomach, building and migrating through into her chest where it erupted, into a big roaring laugh that echoed around her and filled the greenhouse. The others converged, incredulous at this impromptu, and seemingly inappropriate response, bemused as Jasper doubled up, realising the budgie was still there, firmly embedded in her finger.</p><p>"She's finally cracked," Peridot whispered. "Too many rocks to the brain."</p><p>"Look at it! Look at it!" She turned her hand and let it climb over. "It's tiny, insignificant, alone. Barely a hundredth of my size and yet it still fights with the vigour of the finest quartz soldier! A fearless warrior!" It chirped, seemingly in agreement, bobbing a little to stay balanced on her hand. It chirped again, its eyes on something else. Jasper scooped up a handful of seeds, still in the tail end of chuckles as she held them out, and the little bird hopped across, repeating the process a few times before tucking in, intently watched. It ate with such gusto it barely noticed the delicate finger that came to brush against its back. The feathers were so soft and fine! She could almost see every single spar.</p><p>"You seem besotted," Peridot observed dryly.</p><p>"Nice work," Bismuth said, keeping her distance just in case, "and quick too. Do you think you can keep it there whilst we sort out the rest?"</p><p>Jasper gave a small nod, attention still focused in her hands. It was being surprisingly patient with her, staying with her as she retreated to a quieter corner, letting the bird jump and climb over her as much as it pleased. It didn't seem bothered by the strange environment, despite being lost in this strange place. Maybe it was more like home to her, this wild greenhouse filled to the brim with exotic plants and warmth. Smart. It was smart to find such good shelter, with water and food in abundance too. This bird was a survivor, much like her. She held it up again, taking a closer look, given a bit of a fright as the bird hopped towards her face, reaching out to investigate. Jasper pulled it away, eliciting an angry chirp, the bird ruffling its feathers and turning its back. "Hey, hey, it's okay, look." She pulled it back again and it settled, inspecting her again. </p><p>It preened its feathers, hopping the other side and doing the same again. It wasn't until she felt a tiny clink against her gem that echoed through her head that she realised it was using it as a mirror, turning to hold it up to the glass instead, where it happily finished. "Come on then." It looked up at her, almost as if it knew and they settled down again.</p><p>After a while Jasper realised she was being watched.</p><p>Volleyball was staring at her. Not in the way some gems did whilst she was working, hot in the Earth air, muscles rippling as she lifted and set materials in the dust, but softer, honed in on where her hands cradled the bird, offering up fresh seed one at a time.</p><p>"It really trusts you." So far she was the only other one bold and gentle enough to get close without scaring it away. Peridot and Bismuth were still trying to track down the owner, and build a container.</p><p>"It chose me." She was handing it scraps of fluff and dried grasses now, each taken and tossed and pruned, some chewed on, some discarded entirely. A few laid in a still threadbare pile in the crook of her arm, and a few more scattered in her hair between her horns, where it occasionally liked to flutter, and keep watch. She found she didn't mind, kept amused, kept useful by this silly little thing.</p><p>"How did you know?"</p><p>"Hm?"</p><p>"You didn't tell me earlier how you knew about the birds." Volley sat beside her, delicately crossing her legs. "You never come to lessons, and everyone says you hate Earth and all things organic, says you destroyed every trace of organic material up at that cave so… how did you know?"</p><p>Jasper stayed quiet a moment, the pain in her thought worn on her face, acutely aware of this bundle of life between her hands, so easily taken away. Volleyball was delicate too; a Pearl, already broken, but there was no fear on her face, or malice. A glance over assured herself that Peridot and Bismuth were out of earshot at the far side of the greenhouse, but she dropped her voice anyway</p><p>"When I was up at that cave I kept every organic off my territory. Animals, insects, plants. Day and night I worked to keep them away, and soon enough I was left with an apparently barren patch of ground. But the grasses grew back up, and the animals and insects returned again and again, organic life seeping through at every turn. It was a fight to keep them down, or to scare them off, but it was a fight I thought I was winning, slowly. Animals, at least, began to learn not to come near. But I was still trying to remove the insects, and the plants, even trying to dig them up out of the ground. Yet they always came back. It was infuriating."</p><p>"So did the birds. They came back too, again and again whenever I tried to scare them off, or remove their nests and trees, they would simply fly further, take to the air and return as soon as I looked the other way. I knew I had to find another approach to beat them, so I laid in wait, and watched them. I saw them eating the seeds, and the insects. A half-dozen of them could clear more than I could in a day, and keep it down too. I started allowing them to stay. I let them stay. No-one knew. It wasn't hard to make a show of chasing them away in the rare company." Jasper flushed a bright orange under the kind smile Volley was giving her, the sort that drew the phrase 'soft' to the fore. "It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. Entirely tactical decision with the limited resources at hand. They were worthy allies but I could have bested them as foes regardless." She hoped Volley would buy her bluster.</p><p>"You were alone."</p><p>"I did what I had to." Jasper sighed, glancing down to dangle fingers over the budgie for it to chase and nip, attention for it briefly abandoned in the telling of the tale. Volley moved to get up, and in an instant Jasper reached up for her, an angry squawk from the budgie curtailing her grasp as she shifted. But Volleyball stopped anyway. "You can't tell the others," Jasper insisted. Volleyball remained unreadable, an agonising blank canvas to her, "please."</p><p>An eyebrow twitched upwards at the request then broke. She smiled, gave a nod and left, leaving Jasper to settle in her relief, whiling away the time playing alone with the budgie.</p><p> </p><p>She let the noises of the others babble over her. </p><p>'What if no-one does come back? We can't keep it here forever.'</p><p>'Maybe we can.' Jasper stiffened, a quick race of excitement, making a point of continuing to feed the little creature as Bismuth spoke. 'We could build in a two way door, put some netting over the windows, patch up any cracks. There's certainly enough space in here.'</p><p>'What about the plants?' </p><p>Bismuth's voice dropped further. 'What about her?' Jasper's face suddenly flushed, a deep red heat she was glad they didn't see.</p><p>"Pipe down, or you'll spook it again."</p><p>They left her alone at that.</p><p>"Here," Bismuth appeared, crouching beside her, sliding a relatively complicated box with holes and handles over. </p><p>"What's that?" </p><p>"We found the owner."</p><p>Something jumped within her, a little tug she'd not had before. No. </p><p>"They'll be along in a short while. They're pretty happy we found her."</p><p>"Her?" </p><p>"mm-hm. We need to get her in here. Might need to entice her in with food, or-Oh!" Bismuth stifled her cry as Jasper reached out to cover the bird.</p><p>But her fingers closed gently, oh so gently! Around the delicate form, holding it firm enough against the fighting wings until it settled, staring back up at her with those dark tiny eyes. Before it could change her mind she carefully posted it into the box, sealing it up behind and settled back on her haunches to watch the container intently. She frowned. She could hear it, her fluttering around. "It's too small."</p><p>"She'll be fine. I put some food in there, and she won't be in there long."</p><p>Jasper nodded, but her eyes never left the box, her mind racing. What if she got out? What if the holes were too small? What if there wasn't enough food? Or she needed water? What would she do when she got to her home? Escape again? What would happen then? Is this better? There was space in the greenhouse...</p><p>She was still staring when the last lights of the car disappeared. She was going home.</p><p>"Jasper?" Bismuth hovered nearby. "You okay?"</p><p>Was she okay?</p><p>"Why are <strong>you</strong> still here?" Peridot's voice cut her back to the present. "I thought you'd have disappeared as soon as we caught that thing." Jasper tensed up a little. She should have gone, escaped as soon as she'd had the chance, but that little bird, tenacious fighter had her caught in imagination. She'd imagined spending time with one, looking after it, sharing space with it, teaching and training it...</p><p>"Not unless you care…" Peridot wheedled.</p><p>She imagined a huge flock of them hounding the green gem, face flushing with rising heat.</p><p>"I don't believe it! She does! She really does care!"</p><p>The three of them were gawping at her with infuriating grins plastered across their faces, her protests falling flat. She wasn't- She isn't! Shoulders rising she turned and stomped back past them, grabbing the white notice from inside the greenhouse and tearing it up before their eyes, flicking its remnants in their face. </p><p>"No," she declared in the stunned silence, puffed up and stomping around once more.</p><p>...silly Earth things distracting her, distracting them. If it hadn't escaped in the first place she would've long been back at her den for a good rest cycle by now.</p><p>"I don't."</p>
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